The present disclosure relates generally to the field of weather display systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a weather display system and method configured to display weather threats detected by a weather radar system.
Weather display systems are often used to alert operators of vehicles, such as aircraft pilots, of weather hazards in the area near the vehicle. Conventional weather display systems are configured to display weather data in two dimensions and often operate according to ARINC 453 and 708 standards. A horizontal plan view provides an overview of weather patterns near an aircraft mapped onto a horizontal plane. Generally the horizontal plan provides indications of precipitation rates in the vicinity of the aircraft. Red, yellow, and green colors are used to symbolize areas of respective precipitation rates, and black color symbolizes areas of very little or no precipitation. Each color is associated with radar reflectivity range which corresponds to a respective precipitation rate range. Red indicates the highest rates of precipitation while green represents the lowest (non-zero) rates of precipitation. Certain displays can also utilize a magenta color to indicate regions of turbulence.
A vertical profile view can illustrate weather cells along a plane for a particular set of ranges and altitudes and generally uses the red, yellow, green, black and magenta colors described above. Displays with vertical and/or horizontal views have been proposed which include icons for advanced weather threats that are not readily compatible with conventional displays. For example, conventional displays are not configured to easily display new hazards or threats, such as, the threats associated with predictive or inferential weather sensing systems,
Thus, there is a need for a weather information display that provides more information than a conventional display. Further, there is a need for a threat depiction system and method that is compatible with conventional display platforms, such as the A453 and A661 platforms. There is another need for a weather radar system configured to easily display new hazards or threats, such as, those associated with predictive or inferential weather sensing systems using existing display formats and/or standards. There is also a need for an avionic weather radar system for and a method of displaying a core threat, an associated threat, and a predictive overflight threat using symbology compatible with conventional display platforms.